1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a vehicle information transmission apparatus and, more particularly, to a vehicle information transmission apparatus, which can specify rights to access respective pieces of vehicle information, cope with a communication failure, and control transmission periods for respective pieces of vehicle information, in a vehicle information transmission apparatus which is intended to provide a diagnostic service, such as determination of whether an abnormality has occurred in driving devices such as an engine or a brake, and a service for vehicle monitoring and theft tracking, via an external device of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a Mobile In Vehicle (MIV) service for providing a mobile interworking entertainment service has attracted attention. Such an MIV service provides an abnormality notification service for driving devices, a vehicle monitoring service, a theft tracking service, etc. using terminals. In addition to the MIV service, attempts have been made to provide a door unlock-lock control service, a trunk compartment open-close control service, and diagnostic services for engine-gear shift-coolant for example, using terminal-based remote vehicle diagnostic/control services.
For this, a vehicle information transmission apparatus mounted in a vehicle collects vehicle information from a vehicle network and transmits collected vehicle information to a terminal, and the terminal displays the received vehicle information. Here, the vehicle information is data indicating the states of the vehicle, and includes driving environment-related information such as a vehicle speed, the amount of remaining fuel, and a vehicle location, vehicle monitoring-related information, convenience-related information such as the internal temperature, seats, and mirror adjustment of the vehicle, entertainment-related information, etc. Recently, actions have been actively taken to provide various application services using vehicle information.
Vehicle information needs to be set such that only persons having the right of access to relevant vehicle information can access the vehicle information and persons having no right of access are prohibited from accessing the vehicle information. However, a conventional vehicle information transmission apparatus has a problem related to the security of vehicle information because all persons can access the vehicle information.
Further, the conventional vehicle information transmission apparatus is disadvantageous in that there is no method of suitably coping with situations in which vehicle information cannot be transmitted to a relevant user terminal because of terminal defects or communication interference, so that the case where the user misses out on important information may occur.
Furthermore, there is a need to set different periods at which respective pieces of vehicle information collected by the vehicle information transmission apparatus mounted in the vehicle are to be transmitted to the user terminal. However, the conventional vehicle information transmission apparatus is problematic in that it transmits pieces of vehicle information either at a time or only upon receiving the request of a user, so that the vehicle information cannot be opportunely transmitted to the user terminal.